From the first 100 pages I can see that the author had many ideas for this book and couldn't decide on a space opera or a cyber punk so he made it both. I think it was pretty clever the way he got his sci fi sub-genre fixes by having the story periodically switch between the mid-21st century(Matt Cairns) and who knows when(Gregor Cairns)
Also the idea of pot smoking dinosaurs is probably the most whimsical concept I have ever seen in a sci-fi book. The idea of dinosaurs and other now extinct critters existing in Gregor's world is pretty cool even if scientifically unlikely.
I also like the idea of Krakens piloting ships awesome (hi-ho Kraken!!)
The thought of the reds taking over Europe is kind of unpleasant though, as is the thought of the U.S. still being dependant on oil.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
Glass Half...Something
As i started reading Cosmonaut Keep, i found myself a little lost. my initial confusion was soon put to rest with the understanding that, Yes, it's two different time periods. that understanding then forced me to do something i try not to do with any sci-fi novel, and that is that i tried to predict the ending. To try and predict the ending of a book that has 2 completely separated story lines, means that you have to find the connections between the story lines. As far as i have read in the book so far, i really cant find any ideas that will clue me into how this book will turn out.
That creates two completely different feelings. The first, is that the book is wasting my time. its like reading two different writers. the story in the past is engaging, exciting, and very well described. the time period is one that is easy to relate to, and is very reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. This is completely set back by the second story line, taking place hundreds of years into the future, on a different planet. the writing is rather vague, but only on facts. The alien race that is still a mystery, even to the people who have spent generations living with them, have not been given any real solid physical description. every now and then a little fact will be dropped about what they eat, or the shape of their head, or an activity they enjoy. but no real background has been given. this is rather infuriating. how do you lose the ability to travel between the stars, all the while, you are still traveling between the stars? what happened to earth? why was The Bright Star abandoned? i am sure that these all will be answered in the end, or at least i hope.
My other aforementioned feeling is that of anticipation. the author has created a mystery on top of a mystery. i have the feeling that the story will become clear when the past story line becomes clear. kind of a "discover the past to understand the future".
i will keep this blog brief simply because there would be too much speculation without real understanding if i kept going, but all i can say is that this book has all kinds of potential, and potential isn't always a positive thing. some things have the potential to suck.
excuse the lack of capitalization, the computer for some reason doesn't it to heppen, so i am not fighting it.
That creates two completely different feelings. The first, is that the book is wasting my time. its like reading two different writers. the story in the past is engaging, exciting, and very well described. the time period is one that is easy to relate to, and is very reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. This is completely set back by the second story line, taking place hundreds of years into the future, on a different planet. the writing is rather vague, but only on facts. The alien race that is still a mystery, even to the people who have spent generations living with them, have not been given any real solid physical description. every now and then a little fact will be dropped about what they eat, or the shape of their head, or an activity they enjoy. but no real background has been given. this is rather infuriating. how do you lose the ability to travel between the stars, all the while, you are still traveling between the stars? what happened to earth? why was The Bright Star abandoned? i am sure that these all will be answered in the end, or at least i hope.
My other aforementioned feeling is that of anticipation. the author has created a mystery on top of a mystery. i have the feeling that the story will become clear when the past story line becomes clear. kind of a "discover the past to understand the future".
i will keep this blog brief simply because there would be too much speculation without real understanding if i kept going, but all i can say is that this book has all kinds of potential, and potential isn't always a positive thing. some things have the potential to suck.
excuse the lack of capitalization, the computer for some reason doesn't it to heppen, so i am not fighting it.
My thoughts about the book until now.
Note: I am assuming this is to be a blog with our opinions/reflections about the book, if it's not, comment or something.
If I had to be honest I would have to say I dislike the book, however, if I had to be completely honest, the good points of the book are lost within its pages.
Initially the attribute that caught my attention was the alliteration within the paragraphs, which in the preceding content quite honestly annoyed me; some alliteration is good, almost fun, but persistent attempts at tongue-twisting my brain were not so witty in my mind. An example, of course, follows:
Having said the above, I want to now focus on constructive parts of the book, ideas that should have been expanded, and some questions I have for whoever is reading this and wishes to answer.
Something very amusing to me was the relevance to what is called Legacy code/programmers/systems. In short, Legacy basically means "Old", so in our times, Legacy code would be something written in COBOL, I am assuming in the time set in the book, they mean C++ or Perl. Just as amusing was the way some of those old programmers acted, which is based on our times as well, how they subscribed to a fanatic sense of almost worship for Windows, Linux, or the Mac OS, or all of them is true today and in the book.
Additionally, the references to scientific definitions such as the quantum pool, the pH levels, and electrical potentials (or voltage) were enjoyable but could have been lost to the reader who isn't into science.
The way Macleod sees the future and past (although still essentially the future) is much more personal than perhaps someone who is not him could see; this is of course the case with any author, but I believe the job of a writer is to help the reader see what she/he sees through their eyes. I think that he has some sound ideas, but the reading is difficult to follow in some places because of the amount of information given and the lack of the same with other things such as the saurs; to me saurs imply reptilian in appearance, although they seem to have hands, the lack of "dino" makes me think of dinosaurs but not really. However, he could have done a better job at describing them, unless he wanted them to be as quiet and unseemingly non-present as their own character is described in the book.
The latter brings me to my questions, does the author seem to have something against a Social Democracy? Or is that his view of how humanity will progress politically? Also, is it implied that they smoke/do drugs/etc because they have the medical expertise to elongate life anyway? So they don't care, or is humanity just very indulging to begin with?
Those are my questions and my opinions about the book, it is actually getting increasingly easier to follow and even a bit more interesting, so I shall see what happens.
If I had to be honest I would have to say I dislike the book, however, if I had to be completely honest, the good points of the book are lost within its pages.
Initially the attribute that caught my attention was the alliteration within the paragraphs, which in the preceding content quite honestly annoyed me; some alliteration is good, almost fun, but persistent attempts at tongue-twisting my brain were not so witty in my mind. An example, of course, follows:
"Trilobites and ostracoderms, mostly, with a silvery smattering of teleostean fish, a slimy slither of sea-slugs, and crusty clusters of shelled moluscs ..." (pg 3)At the moment I cannot find the other example in a few paragraphs later, nevertheless someone else can do it for me if they want.
Having said the above, I want to now focus on constructive parts of the book, ideas that should have been expanded, and some questions I have for whoever is reading this and wishes to answer.
Something very amusing to me was the relevance to what is called Legacy code/programmers/systems. In short, Legacy basically means "Old", so in our times, Legacy code would be something written in COBOL, I am assuming in the time set in the book, they mean C++ or Perl. Just as amusing was the way some of those old programmers acted, which is based on our times as well, how they subscribed to a fanatic sense of almost worship for Windows, Linux, or the Mac OS, or all of them is true today and in the book.
Additionally, the references to scientific definitions such as the quantum pool, the pH levels, and electrical potentials (or voltage) were enjoyable but could have been lost to the reader who isn't into science.
The way Macleod sees the future and past (although still essentially the future) is much more personal than perhaps someone who is not him could see; this is of course the case with any author, but I believe the job of a writer is to help the reader see what she/he sees through their eyes. I think that he has some sound ideas, but the reading is difficult to follow in some places because of the amount of information given and the lack of the same with other things such as the saurs; to me saurs imply reptilian in appearance, although they seem to have hands, the lack of "dino" makes me think of dinosaurs but not really. However, he could have done a better job at describing them, unless he wanted them to be as quiet and unseemingly non-present as their own character is described in the book.
The latter brings me to my questions, does the author seem to have something against a Social Democracy? Or is that his view of how humanity will progress politically? Also, is it implied that they smoke/do drugs/etc because they have the medical expertise to elongate life anyway? So they don't care, or is humanity just very indulging to begin with?
Those are my questions and my opinions about the book, it is actually getting increasingly easier to follow and even a bit more interesting, so I shall see what happens.
wow.....pot smoking lizards....pretty cool
Well It did take me a few chapters to understand that one story was in the past while the other was set in the future....I didn't read the back until much later. But so far everything seems pertty cool...like the small hope of love that Elizabeth has for Gregor is kinda intresting..she just didn't seem like the kind of woman who would be intrested in a man like that, and the fact that he is completely smitten for her, but totally goes for another chick..men. I do like Matt's story better, it seems a bit more intresting mostly because the action happened almost immedently.
Over all so far the book is cool, but sort of slow....I haven't read enough to get to the conncetion between them, but I have an idea.
Over all so far the book is cool, but sort of slow....I haven't read enough to get to the conncetion between them, but I have an idea.
Cosmonaut Keep (Lessons in Temporal Displacement) *no real spoilers*
When reading Cosmonaut Keep, there are many concepts that pique my interest. The Quasi-Orwellian Earth of just-a-few-decades-from-now, and the alien world of Mingulay. The characters of each are (for the most part) interesting, as are their histories. However, it is the technology of Cosmonaut Keep that fascinates, or rather, the tech of interstellar travel.
The concept of space travel in Cosmonaut Keep is one based solely in relativity, e.g., while to those on the ship a journey from point A to point B will seem instantaneous, it will be tens to hundreds of years to those at point A and B, depending on where those points lie. This, as one saur suggests to the descendants of the Cosmonauts, lets the ships act as one way time machines,
allowing someone to jump into their planet's future. However, the unfortunate affect is of course that once someone leaves on a star ship, they might as well be gone forever (which, by the way, is the only sympathetic aspect of the Elizabeth-Gregor-Lydia triangle, as otherwise they might as well be torn from one of those cheesy romance novels that the vendors of Mingulay are so careful to keep tucked under the stand). And upon returning to your home world after a star-faring journey, you are probably going to be in for quite a culture-shock.
This concept is furthered by the fantastic way the novel jumps time periods, and how it slowly reveals how one time-line will eventually meet the other. This time distortion is somewhat similar to what early Earth explorers and merchants likely experienced when they returned home after prolonged journeys. While yes, they will be aware of time passed, they would have almost (if not any) idea of what had been happening in their homelands. And during feudal times, this could mean an entirely different world waiting for them, and sometimes, they would not always be welcomed back.
It is concepts and ideas like these that keep me absorbed in Cosmonaut Keep, no so much any one character or plotline, although the story back on Earth is really picking up around pg. 120.
-Dan
The concept of space travel in Cosmonaut Keep is one based solely in relativity, e.g., while to those on the ship a journey from point A to point B will seem instantaneous, it will be tens to hundreds of years to those at point A and B, depending on where those points lie. This, as one saur suggests to the descendants of the Cosmonauts, lets the ships act as one way time machines,
allowing someone to jump into their planet's future. However, the unfortunate affect is of course that once someone leaves on a star ship, they might as well be gone forever (which, by the way, is the only sympathetic aspect of the Elizabeth-Gregor-Lydia triangle, as otherwise they might as well be torn from one of those cheesy romance novels that the vendors of Mingulay are so careful to keep tucked under the stand). And upon returning to your home world after a star-faring journey, you are probably going to be in for quite a culture-shock.
This concept is furthered by the fantastic way the novel jumps time periods, and how it slowly reveals how one time-line will eventually meet the other. This time distortion is somewhat similar to what early Earth explorers and merchants likely experienced when they returned home after prolonged journeys. While yes, they will be aware of time passed, they would have almost (if not any) idea of what had been happening in their homelands. And during feudal times, this could mean an entirely different world waiting for them, and sometimes, they would not always be welcomed back.
It is concepts and ideas like these that keep me absorbed in Cosmonaut Keep, no so much any one character or plotline, although the story back on Earth is really picking up around pg. 120.
-Dan
Why did we let this book get published!!!
The first part of this book was to say at the least dry dull and utterly a boring mess. There was little in the way of good writing;good writing being that witch conveys emotional responses or made you love, hate, or feel for in anyway, for the character. If this was truly a book worth its weight then any or all of those would have been present. The Saurs were not described in away to make you go "I can believe that". All you really get for the best of description is on pg4-5 when talking about Salasso for the first time. This was worse then some of the works I have read of high school freshmen. I'm not even sure you could call this a work of literature. I would more likely read a trashy romance novel then a book by this man ever again.
So before i get my self in anymore trouble because I know if I yell more about this book someone will yell and bitch back to me. So I will leave this first blog at this my thoughts.
Madwonderland's Ravings
So before i get my self in anymore trouble because I know if I yell more about this book someone will yell and bitch back to me. So I will leave this first blog at this my thoughts.
Madwonderland's Ravings
Cosmonaut Keep (to chapter 8)
The first three sentences really set the mood for this book: a state of limbo between dualities. This dreamy quality flows through the book but never quite so clearly as it does in the beginning.
"You're not here. Try to remember this. Try not to remember where you really are."
Reading the book from this perspective leaves you as an outside observer to what is happening but draws you away from your own reality pushing you into a place that is not "here" in the book or "here" in the real world. It shifts you into a place that is not the near or far future but instead an undefined middle ground. A place where things proceed in familiar ways but with an alien feel.
Looking at the far future, saurs (pot smoking lizard aliens) present the feeling of slow wisdom, quietly learning and allowing the impetuous youth to create their own new mistakes to learn from. Perhaps the saurs are a representation of a middle age species watching over the ambitious, young human species and learning from their differences. Krakens, from the few glimpses we are given from the perspectives of human and saur, indicate the are the ancient species that can frolic and travel as they wish. They can do so because they have already made their youthful mistakes, gone through their slow acquisition of knowledge and can finally use what they have learned to enjoy themselves and their prosperity.
The duality is in the not so distant future where we are given a view of humanity having more difficulty because of their technology and complicated ways pushing them around in ways that the seemingly low tech existence in the far future avoids entirely. The society of humans in the near future is a complex web of distrust and deception that uses technology for everything. This near future uses virtual reality and artificial intelligences to deal with information and even the dust in certain areas is technologically advanced to deter electronic listening in to conversations. This reliance on technology influences the actions of everyone in these sections of the story. The sections that take place in the far future, by contrast, still have some technology but they use it only when absolutely necessary so it has almost no effect on their daily lives. The humans in the far future don't even use calculators to help them with the math required for their great project of re-using a star ship (that was created by humans) so that they may be able to travel independently of the krakens. These things may change as the book progresses and I look forward to finding out.
"You're not here. Try to remember this. Try not to remember where you really are."
Reading the book from this perspective leaves you as an outside observer to what is happening but draws you away from your own reality pushing you into a place that is not "here" in the book or "here" in the real world. It shifts you into a place that is not the near or far future but instead an undefined middle ground. A place where things proceed in familiar ways but with an alien feel.
Looking at the far future, saurs (pot smoking lizard aliens) present the feeling of slow wisdom, quietly learning and allowing the impetuous youth to create their own new mistakes to learn from. Perhaps the saurs are a representation of a middle age species watching over the ambitious, young human species and learning from their differences. Krakens, from the few glimpses we are given from the perspectives of human and saur, indicate the are the ancient species that can frolic and travel as they wish. They can do so because they have already made their youthful mistakes, gone through their slow acquisition of knowledge and can finally use what they have learned to enjoy themselves and their prosperity.
The duality is in the not so distant future where we are given a view of humanity having more difficulty because of their technology and complicated ways pushing them around in ways that the seemingly low tech existence in the far future avoids entirely. The society of humans in the near future is a complex web of distrust and deception that uses technology for everything. This near future uses virtual reality and artificial intelligences to deal with information and even the dust in certain areas is technologically advanced to deter electronic listening in to conversations. This reliance on technology influences the actions of everyone in these sections of the story. The sections that take place in the far future, by contrast, still have some technology but they use it only when absolutely necessary so it has almost no effect on their daily lives. The humans in the far future don't even use calculators to help them with the math required for their great project of re-using a star ship (that was created by humans) so that they may be able to travel independently of the krakens. These things may change as the book progresses and I look forward to finding out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)